there's a crack in the wall
and it's spreading like a web
to that most tender of places
where the adolescent mind never learned
how to say it's too late the roof's already in flames
anyway
now the same mouth that sat mute
while I shaped an ear from a lump of gray clay
because you never learned to hear
remains silent while I learn
to build houses with doors
elPintor
Sat 16th Mar 2019 06:58
Words can be terrifically slippery, but I love them most when they resist me so.
Duality--so glad to see it expressed so clearly through your comments, David and Jason.
Thanks to all who read,
Rachel
See now, to me, it speaks of cracks in the defensive barriers that lead to that most tender of places, the heart.
The adolescent mind never learned to express an event that, "set the roof on fire," and caused the construction of the defensive barriers.
Now the mouth that stayed mute, learns to hone it's perceptive listening skills, (make a complex ear from simple clay), because someone failed to hear what should have been heard.
Remains watchful and silent assessing someones worthiness to be allowed in.
When I read it I see the doors as an entrance, a metaphor for not being completely closed off to the world, but considering letting someone in whilst still maintaining some barriers.
Rather than crash down the walls and let the whole world in, build a door in them and let just some people in as and when you feel you can, and shut them out as well should you need to.
Love the poem, even if I've mis-read the meaning.
J. x
elPintor
Thu 14th Mar 2019 13:53
"Women artists. There is no such thing—or person. It’s just as much a contradiction in terms as 'man artist' or 'elephant artist.' You may be a woman and you may be an artist; but the one is a given and the other is you."
– Dorothea Tanning, 1990
Good heavens, where are women like this on International Women's Day when first-world female office workers are given a paid half-day just for inheriting two X chromosomes?
..more later, David x
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anamaria
Fri 22nd Mar 2019 11:34
"to build houses with doors" ... ❤️